It goes without saying that New Year's Day 2011 will forever hold a special place in the hearts of TCU football fans: The day the Horned Frogs captured a memorable 21-19 Rose Bowl victory over Wisconsin to cap off a perfect 13-0 season.

But over the last eight years, most TCU fans likely had no idea of the inspiration for the gameplan head coach Gary Patterson against the Badgers in Pasadena -- until Monday.

The key elements: Current-day Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst, and a job opening at Texas.

And knowing that a rush-heavy offensive scheme likely wouldn't cut it for landing the job in Austin, Patterson could only assume that Chryst would have the Badgers offense would move the ball through the air more than usual.

So Patterson prepared for exactly that. And it worked.

"Do you think you can get the offensive coordinator job at Texas by running for 300 yards and not throwing the football and just pounding TCU? Probably not," Patterson told media members Monday. "So I took that into consideration ... that they would probably try to play action and do more.

So we played to our advantage until the last drive. We had them locked, incomplete, 2nd and 10 -- well now that plays to the advantage of a smaller TCU team."

The rest is history, as the Badgers were held to their lowest point total of the season while the confetti fell for the Horned Frogs after the final seconds ticked off the game clock.

So now you know. And heck, leave it to Gary Patterson to devise a defensive gameplan as outside-of-the-box as what was used that day in the Granddaddy of Them All.

Dean Straka. Dean Straka is a sports digital producer and covers both TCU football and basketball. He's also spent time covering SMU football, prep sports and golf. Dean was born and raised in Southern California but has called Texas home since 2013. When he's not writing, you can find him golfing, venturing around Dallas, or serving with his local church.